I fail to see any lost information ! The invoice lines are moved intact via the merge to the destination invoice, the rest of the information is simply maintained as far as we can see.
Also, in the purchases, the merged invoice takes place of the previous draft invoices… prior to deletion, the empty draft invoices point to nothing at all pertinent. Cancelling appears to be simply superfluous.
??! Information technology is to automate and simplify, and not go back to the stone ages.
As many, we have for years a simple but effective workflow based upon management of delivery (and return) notes from our suppliers to our depots and worksites.
These deliveries are the basis for invoices where some suppliers issue an invoice per delivery note and generate them on a monthly, semi-monthly, or perhaps three times a month basis. Others will invoice at the end of the month most or all of the deliveries made.
It is simply not feasible and rather abusive to expect our staff to go back and search one-by-one standalone invoice lines from multiple deliveries to multiple warehouses… especially since tryton doesn’t allow yet to search by delivery note, only by purchase order or article!
This is why by default we have on purchases invoicing ‘based upon shipment’… and merge the invoices after verification delivery by delivery.
Otherwise, where we are already slower in data entry since migrating to tryton, we’d slow things down considerably with the suggested module. Which is why we rejected it quickly after evaluation.
The enhancements we envision should reverse the slowdown and improve verification and validation capabilities, not to mention in other areas as well.
So how to manage invoice grouping for materiel purchases? For us it is without a doubt by delivery notes.
Exactly the point. The received invoices (from all our materiel suppliers) have the invoice lines organised by delivery note. The generated invoice by delivery greatly simplifies this detailed step as for standard purchases the prices are typically okay… it is the variable amounts that are complicated currently in tryton, namely eco tax and delivery costs which we are also able to deal with more easily when working on these draft invoices.
Once all the pieces parts are verified, we merge, then reverify the mass prior to validating.
??? who cares, for materiel suppliers it’s on the invoice and it *is by delivery note with a comment including the initial purchase order. Receiving the actual invoice triggers the final verification and validation procedures.
We’ve never come across anything different (can’t say I have either, in any country where I’ve had the pleasure to work in).
For services (or works) suppliers, it’s by advancement anyway. Naturally not in this category of procedures.
it is wrong to assume that all lines from one delivery note will be on exactly one invoice in all cases. I have suppliers that will generate two invoices from one delivery note (and the one I think about is one of the most bigger books distributor in France).
So I agree with @ced that Purchase Invoice Standalone is doing the right thing: it works in a generic way.
but I agree the view used to selection lines to add in invoice could included the purchase number and/or delivery note reference to help accounter to do quick selection (it wasn’t the case last time I checked).
in your case, I would look to add a wizard for invoice, to work with purchase invoice standalone to automatically add lines from a selected set of delivery notes. it would just extend a bit purchase invoice standalone to ease lines selection: the person creating invoice will only see delivery notes on selection and all related lines will be added on the invoice.
I’m real curious about this case in hand, more details please? Invoice by publishing house?
I believe we’ve only seen to date omissions or some quantity discrepancies between the delivery note and the invoice… which tryton seems to nicely track (that is if the invoiced quantities are different than received).
If it were possible to import the lines by delivery note into the invoice then, yes, that would be useful
(as long as an invoice does not exist already!).
But unfortunately, for that to work well we still need to have the eco-contributions and indirect taxes working sufficiently (https://discuss.tryton.org/t/ecotax-management) to avoid some problems that are currently solved with the work flow currently in place.
I should insist that with invoices of only a couple of lines there is no real user problem, but with many pages of invoice lines (at times over 200 lines) it can be, and is, a nightmare if things aren’t organised to simplify the process.
Too, the majority of our suppliers issue an invoice per delivery note…
It seems with the xxx_invoice_line_standalone the invoice lines don’t seem to be available from the financial invoices menus.
Also, there must be a means to replace in an usable manner the draft invoices/amounts waiting for the real invoice to be validated using the lines…
Currently I seem only able to find them under each individual purchase!
Wading through 99+ purchases processing is not a small task.
So I have to admit that I’m a bit skeptical about the benefits… not arguing at all that it should be possible (it should).
Here, the invoicing is done depending if books were automatically sent or explicitly purchased (for what I understand: I am on accounting side, not on librarian side).
Newly published books are automatically sent to libraries (usually with longer due date and with return facility). But the librarian could also explicitly purchase books (due date is different, and return isn’t possible). On delivery note, both are mixed. Invoices are received monthly, and new books are invoiced separetly. So I have different due date depending the invoice too. I think it helps them to track return permissions.
Well, when we get things sent automatically, there is usually (though not always) a separate delivery note, even if it is in the same physical shipment (multiple packages).
On the invoice, it is actually not a real invoice but a proforma… which, if paid, a real acquitted invoice will be sent.
I understand the library is on more of a subscription type of delivery system.
There, I don’t see the relationship between the delivery and the purchase order.
Perhaps the distinction is to be made there… if the library accepts the automatic order, then they could do as we do, create an purchase order, such as to allow receiving in one shipment multiple orders.
There, Tryton handles that already okay, two invoices are created because the orders are distinct.
! The invoice lines are moved intact via the merge to the destination invoice, the rest of the information is simply maintained as far as we can see.